


table for three

by searwrites (sears)



Category: Free!
Genre: College/Uni AU, M/M, floaty babychild ai deserves all the things, including the hot boys, not quite canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 01:45:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2292356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sears/pseuds/searwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>from tumblr: </p><p>rin/nitori/sousuke | a vague sort of uni/college au that doesn't really have much to do with canon except that it takes some inspiration from it | general warnings for alcohol related regret, sexual relationship between three people. not warning for more than that, please read at your own discretion | nc17 | 5kish</p><p>(this is a halfassed combination of a couple of different anon prompts that i can't quote exactly. basically ai has a big gooey crush on both of them, rin is obliviously wrong about everything, and sousuke has bigger shit to worry about than this.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	table for three

It’s that time again.

That late autumn afternoon time, when the sun struggles to make its presence known over the towering arches of the buildings on campus, when it’s just chilly enough that the faint scent of fireplaces carries on the wind. There’s a million other colorful words Rin could use to describe this time of day, but mostly is just time to visit Ai at the campus cafe, the routine of his shift now memorized by both Sousuke and himself.

It’s a little different this time, though.

Sousuke isn’t there with Rin, and he hopes this means Ai might be less intimidated, as if Sousuke and Rin combined is too strong a force to deal with. It’s been hell for the past two weeks, and Rin is scrambling trying to figure out how to fix things.

“The usual, please,” Rin says to Ai at the counter playfully, putting on his softest, most sincere smile. Ai looks right at him, brave in a way that makes Rin feel small, though his face is flushed in embarrassed heat, pink dusted high on his cheekbones.

Ai doesn’t say anything to him, just gives an acknowledging squeak before hurrying off to make his coffee. Rin never even drank the stuff before he realized Ai worked here, and Ai makes it a little too sweet for his tastes, but it’s worth it - or it was, before  _that night_.

 _That night_  - the night where Rin and Sousuke descended on Ai like a pack of wolves, that night they left Ai fucked out in his own bed to wake up alone to the shame of what they did.

Rin must be frowning horribly thinking about it, and he shakes it off when Ai returns with his mug and saucer, looking concerned for Rin. Rin beams a somewhat forced smile at him, and hesitates before moving over towards the couch he and Sousuke usually sit at. It's a loveseat, go figure, still vacated somehow, and Rin wonders if Ai keeps it that way. Maybe he did, once, but probably not anymore.

Still, when Rin opens his book, reading to make time pass and to seem less awkward sitting in here alone, he notices that Ai put an extra biscotti on his saucer, something he’s done since they started being regulars here when Ai was on shift. It’s not a lot, but it’s something.

-

Rin goes back to his dorm a lot later than intended, caught in a hunk of thickened plot in his book, his muscles still burning from early morning practice at the pool. Ever since they stopped running together, it seemed like the most logical option, to get more hours in the water - he couldn’t stop waking up at the crack of dawn, a habit now anyway.

Sousuke is hunched over their desk in the dorm when Rin enters, his back hunched like his bones are collapsing in his studying effort, his brain the only thing he thinks he’s got left. Rin tells him about the cafe - going there alone and romanticising the significance of the extra biscotti, their empty couch - and Sousuke huffs a disbelieving, and somewhat self-deprecating, laugh at it all.

“He’s afraid of me, I already knew this,” Sousuke says.

“He’s not exactly comfortable in my company either,” Rin mumbles, chewing thoughtfully at his lip. “And how did you already know?”

“Because,” Sousuke says, turning from his laptop to lean back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest like he’s defensively chilled by something. “Ai was out for a run with the girls from his study group and I was running the track in the other direction. He didn’t notice me, or maybe he did, but when I brushed past him he, like, jumped away from me.”

Rin’s heart sinks, pulling painfully at the bones of his ribcage. What did they  _do_  to him? And not that night specifically, Rin remembers that night with shockingly stark clarity considering how many drinks he’d had, but more just that they’ve ruined  _something_ , taken something delicate and broken it, somehow.

And Rin would say it was sad that Sousuke still goes on the morning runs alone, but it’s all he has now. They both met Ai on the swim team, but Sousuke’s shoulder took a turn for the worst, and he had to drop out. He lost his athletic scholarship, and has turned into a sort of gloomy study-machine ever since.

It’s why Rin thinks Sousuke wanted to fuck Ai so badly that night, to somehow twistedly prove to himself that his broken body still had some kind of use, that someone still wanted him, even outside of athletic academia. Which is ridiculous, because Rin has been giving himself to Sousuke since they both were teenagers, since they were scrawny boys who took a somewhat routine sleepover to discover what it meant to find mutual pleasure, for curious touches to turn into a kind of unspoken agreement between them -  _we do what feels good_.

  
It started with handjobs and progressed to something much less innocent when Rin discovered the internet and its various uses, when he realized the things he saw were as scary as they were arousing, and that he could only ever feel safe enough to do them with Sousuke. That’s changed since then, though Rin still trusts Sousuke with his whole life, his soul, everything.

Rin never questioned what they were doing, mainly because Sousuke seemed so sure it was right - because it feels good, because why the hell shouldn’t they? Rin kind of hates the term ‘fuck buddies’ but it’s the most explicitly honest way to describe their relationship right now. Even though ‘buddies’ seems a little light - it’s like ‘fuck soulmates’, though that sounds more like a declaration  _against_  the term rather than some kind of endearment to it.

 

But that night… That night was the first time they ever ventured outside of what they knew to pursue an outside entity, to take someone else into their bubble. It wasn’t as impulsive as it might seem on paper - they’d been thinking about it for weeks, maybe months. The cute little freshman with the perky butt who went all starry eyed at them - it was like going to this party and looking for him, specifically, was only a part of some kind of natural progression.

The party was in Ai’s dorm building, in the commons downstairs, but they’d all ended up stumbling back to Ai’s room once Sousuke had taken the beer away from Rin’s hand and declared he’d had enough. Rin was the most drunk out of them all, so it’s weird he can remember so much, but the beginning is hazy. Sousuke had a few drinks, at least, but Rin was too jittery with nerves to notice if Ai had any or not.

There was a fumble, a middle, and an end. The fumble is like what it sounds - a messy memory muddled by nerves, and maybe a little bit too much pent up arousal. They used to talk about it sometimes, what they thought would happen - with Sousuke driving into Rin from behind, holding him up with one arm before his shoulder was shot to shit, whispering in Rin’s ear  _‘imagine him here, imagine fucking him while I’m fucking you, he’d be fucking crushed beneath us’_. It was almost scary, how much he wanted it, but he was in too deep by the time they’d reached Ai’s bed, tumbling down onto it like a pair of mangled headphones - too much of a mess to try and straighten out, but you listen to the music anyway, a knot hanging against your chest.

Sousuke was rough with Ai, as much as he is with Rin, if not more so. It took a while for Rin to settle into the realization that Ai wanted it that way, that his whimpering sobs weren’t protests - he was  _begging_  Sousuke for it. Sousuke fucked him until his face was red and thick, flushed from the lack of oxygen after moaning into a pillow for an extended amount of time, and then Sousuke pulled out, handed Rin Ai’s swollen, gaping little hole like an offering of trust.

Rin fucked him then, running his hands all up along either sides of his spine, worshipping his smaller, paler body, the perfectly rounded cheeks of his ass. Rin doesn’t remember coming, just remembers Sousuke shouting as he did, coming into his own hand, jerking off while he watched Rin pummel into Ai.

Ai shouted too, though higher pitched, and ended up coming all over his own pillow, clutching it to his front like he needed something to hold on to. Rin nearly offered himself in the pillow's stead, wanted to feel like Ai’s experience was more human than the tag team fuck that had seemingly just occurred.

Rin doesn’t remember falling asleep, either, but he remembers waking in a jolt, only hours later, the sun barely coming up over the horizon. He forced Sousuke awake, pulled his blearily confused hulking body away from Ai on the bed, who seemed so pitiful, curled up around his come-soaked pillow, sleeping softly, naked. Rin’s entire body burned with shame as they left, and at the time he thought he was doing Ai a favor, saving him from the embarrassment of  _the morning after the night before_ , looking so debauched by the two older boys.

When he told Sousuke this after he’d finally started to wake up on the walk back to their dorm Sousuke frowned at him and called him a fucking asshole.

-

Swimming isn’t the same. It hasn’t been since Sousuke left, but it’s even worse now that Ai seems to be skirting around him. Ai isn’t very good at swimming either, which Rin had always found cute until now - now it’s just infuriating, trying to understand why he lets himself do things he apparently doesn’t want to be doing.

It’s a good distraction, though, even if Ai is stuck in the same room with him all the while. That is, until Rin overhears the two female life guards on duty, talking fretfully about  _“Ni-tiny”_  in hushed whispers off to the side.

_“He says he’s joining the track team, he doesn’t want to come back.”_

_“Poor baby, I wonder if the coach is too hard on him.”_

_“I thought he was really starting to enjoy it too.”_

Rin gets lost for a moment, tensely awaiting the moment they whisper about him, how both Rin and Sousuke ruined their precious little flower. It doesn’t come, but then Rin is suddenly furious about the realization that Ai is leaving too - that Rin will be essentially alone on the team now.

Rin runs after Ai when he catches him leaving early through the courtyard, tugging on sweats over his swim briefs and jogging with his shoelaces untied. Ai actually does jump when Rin grabs for his shoulder, which Rin instantly feels like shit for, and then he slips easily back into irrational anger when he sees the duffel bag Ai dropped on the ground - all of the stuff packed up from his locker.

“Why are you quitting?” Rin huffs heavily.

“It isn’t really my thing, you know that,” Ai says quietly, looking down at his feet in a bashful sort of defeat.

“I don’t understand,” Rin says. Feeling lost is a grave understatement for what this is - it feels like trying to climb out of water on a ladder made of seaweed, everything just out of reach, slipping away from you. “I thought you liked it? You  _told_  me you liked it.”

“I did, it just-” Ai sighs, and it’s getting cold enough out now that his breath comes out in a fog. His cheeks are pink, probably from a combination of residual shame and the chill of the air, and his lips are so pink, Rin can only just barely resist biting them, just to see if they’re real. “It wasn’t what I thought it’d be.”

Rin doesn’t have anything to say to that, so he stands there gaping like an idiot. He realizes his brain isn’t keeping up with reality, that he can’t process what he’s about to say until the words have already left his mouth.

“Is it because of me?” he asks, his body shaking, but not from the cold. “Because of what we did… that night?”

Ai shrugs quickly, and it’s about as good as a yes. He seems to go through some kind of internal struggle, his eyebrows pinching on a concentrated frown, and then he says, “I know you guys think I’m a slut.”

“Whoa, what?” Rin rears backwards, and then rushes in towards Ai when he realizes Ai was serious. He tips Ai’s head up to look at him, two fingers beneath his cute little chin, and then immediately feels like shit for touching him without permission. “We don’t think you’re a slut. We  _never_  thought that, ever.”

Ai finally does look up at Rin then, of his own volition this time, and then it’s like something acutely physical manifests between them. It’s in the way Ai’s pupils visibly fatten, like they’re remembering something, and Rin’s heart takes flight in his chest. Ai starts to do that swooning thing he does, where he unconsciously leans closer, and Rin is so ready to kiss him, ready to lick apart his soft, pink little lips in the most pathetically needy kind of apology, but then Ai seems to catch himself. He straightens, picks up his duffel bag, and walks away with shaky resolution.

Rin only moves when the chill finally hits him, when the shakes start to actually be related to the temperature.

-

Ever since Ai joined the team, it was like opening a new book while still keeping tabs on another you’ve been reading slowly over time. It felt like a game, like a test almost - the way Ai kind of just fell into them, Rin specifically, and how easy it was for Sousuke to just accept this. He never even seemed jealous about it when Rin finally remarked that Ai was fucking adorable, only amused and slightly smug, like he’d just been proven right, somehow. Rin just never factored it in as a section of reality, never thought of Ai as a thing he,  _they_ , could actually have.

It was always just them, and Rin had never known to want something else, because it had only ever been Sousuke who wanted him. And he was fine with that, more than fine.

But Ai… Ai was something special. Ai was like a prettily decorated cake, perfectly bite-sized, delivered to Rin on a shiny platter. When Ai had joined the team, and subsequently turned out to be somewhat hydrophobic, Sousuke was convinced it was because of Rin. He’d tease Rin daily about how he seemed to have adopted a stray, that Ai was like a lovesick puppy, following Rin around, led by this seemingly innocent crush. It only took barely a week to notice that the boyish wonder was actually direct at the both of them, like Ai was constantly stuck daydreaming about having a piece of the two of them, of what they were together.

The three of them started running together, every morning. This was something Ai was good at, and it was simple enough for Sousuke and Rin to keep up with him. In the summer the early mornings weren’t so cold, and even Sousuke didn’t seem to mind waking up that early just for the little sliver of time they could spend together alone. Ai was still so quick to get embarrassed around them, even with no one else in sight, constantly blushing and asking curiously vague questions about their relationship, which Sousuke always cockily avoided. It was like he got off on Ai’s innocent confusion, though Rin wonders if innocent is the right word now, if it ever was. Sousuke seemed quick to catch on to the fact that Ai was desperately curious about the two of them, while it took Rin much longer to realize.

“Do you guys share clothes?” Ai had asked one time, on a particularly brisk morning, right as late summer began to bleed into autumn, the tip of his nose as pink as his cheeks. “I think you could, and no one would notice.”

“Could?” Sousuke had asked, smirking, “Or should?”

“Um.”

“Sometimes we do,” Rin said, saving Ai’s treading displacement, scowling at Sousuke when he was sure Ai was too embarrassed to look at them. Sousuke just laughed. “Sousuke is bigger than me, though.”

“Oh,” Ai had said, and he had this far away, dreamy look in his eyes, like he was trying to picture Rin in an oversized pair of Sousuke’s sweatpants, like he’d maybe even been thinking about wearing their clothes himself, swamped by the extra fabric.

Rin wishes he’d caught on to what that look meant. Sousuke seemed to have gotten it, but Sousuke has always said Rin is more innocent than everyone at the school put together, and maybe, sometimes, his observations are right.

-

“I talked to Ai,” Sousuke says one afternoon, dropping his name like it’s casual conversation, rolling his eyes when Rin glares at him. “I caught him on a run, by himself, we sat on the benches there and just talked.”

“About what?”

“About you,” Sousuke says, blunt as ever. “He’s actually afraid of  _you_ , not me.”

Rin feels the words like a stab through the gut, each syllable an equally sharp, piercing needle. Afraid of him? Is that why he quit the team when it was only him left, Sousuke not there anymore? Is the second biscotti with his coffee some kind of politely adorable gesture of ‘please fuck off’?

“Not like that, jesus you’re so hung up on that shit,” Sousuke says. He waves Rin’s horrified expression off like he’s some kind of drama queen, like Sousuke has been sick of his shit for weeks now. “He thinks you didn’t want it. Like that you only went along with it because  _I_  wanted it. He thinks me and you are together, exclusively.”

Rin barks out a surprised laugh, more air than actual vocal activity, staring helplessly at Sousuke. It all suddenly makes sense - the tip-toeing around, the apology biscottis, the constant shameful burning of his cheeks - he thinks he got between Rin and Sousuke, these pillars of the kind of relationship he romanticized in his head, of being on the same team and sharing clothes, sharing everything.

“Did you tell him we’re not? I’m not- like.  _What_?”

Sousuke laughs now, at Rin, a genuinely fond sound. Rin wants to burrow into the warmth of his chest and hide, so he flops onto the bed next to him and does just that.

“I think we kind of are, but maybe not in the way he thinks,” Sousuke says, running his fingers through Rin’s hair, dragging his blunt fingernails along his scalp. Sousuke dips his head down, pulls Rin even closer to him, almost into his lap, and murmurs into his hair a quiet, “I want to try it again.”

“Sober,” Rin barks, muffled by the fabric of his own sweater stretched over Sousuke’s broad shoulders, and Rin wants to share this with Ai too - clothes, Sousuke, all of it. Sousuke just laughs, and it sounds like they agree, at least.

-

Rin goes back to the cafe, at his usual precise time, but Ai isn’t there. He’d spent an entire day wondering, painting pictures in his head and imaging how easily Ai’s smaller frame would fit between them. The fact that Sousuke doesn’t seem even remotely against the idea, that he actually sat and talked to Ai about it, makes Rin’s stomach swoop in hope.

The fact he isn’t at the campus cafe is worrying, though, and Rin slips back into that familiar fear that Ai is avoiding him, cutting him out in various sections of his life, like pulling apart an orange. He’s about to say fuck it, give up on the idea of trying again, but then when he waltzes into his dorm, ready to lie and tell Sousuke he’s over it now, Sousuke is sitting there waiting for him, his knee bouncing.

“Ai is coming over,” Sousuke announces, and Rin takes a while to process this, as if he’s speaking in another language he isn’t quite fluent in yet. “He’s on a run with the track team, but he's coming by after. He joined them now as his new elective, by the way.”

Rin imagines Ai swapping electives at the office, picking running as some kind of penance for the supposed affair he thinks he’s had with one of them (both of them? Rin doesn’t understand how Ai managed to justify it as ‘getting in the way’), taking the quiet solidarity of extra runs in the full heat of the early afternoon sun like punishment.

Ai comes in mere minutes later, while Rin is still stood in the middle of their room wondering what the fuck he’s going to do, what he’s going to say, how good it will feel to touch him again, for them both to do it. Ai lets himself in, doesn’t even knock, and then immediately turns to lock the door behind him. Rin is so shocked at the silent entry, that he misses Sousuke stripping his clothes off, only catches him kicking off his sweats and then moving to adjust the curtains so they cover the full window.

Ai begins to strip too, cautiously, approaching them both slowly. Sousuke laughs at Rin’s stunned expression, and pushes him into Ai when they’re close enough. Ai swoons into him, the action so tenderly familiar, and Rin leaning down to kiss him is what’s  _really_  like natural progression. He licks Ai’s wet, soft little lips apart, only occasionally letting go of him when Sousuke insistently pulls Rin back to take off his shirt, undressing him.

It’s shockingly intimate in here, the way things are now - with Ai kicking off his tight little running shorts, small red stitch marks etched into the tops of his thighs from the fabric sitting so snugly against his skin. The late afternoon sun illuminates the edges of the blackout curtains they’ve drawn, hiding them in here, safe in this warm cocoon they created together. Ai lies back against the wall, spreads his legs when Rin just stares at him - at how naturally hairless he is, at how cute his cock seems to be, dribbling precome against the tiny little pouch of his stomach, red and swollen at the tip. He keeps tilting his hips up, eyeing Rin like he’s trying to convey that he’s begging, again, though this time in a different way. Rin finally realizes with a rush of embarrassment that Ai might be small and slight, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make his own decisions, doesn’t mean he isn’t sure of what he wants. Sousuke told him the other night that Ai confessed to not having drank a thing that night, and that Ai felt responsible for whatever happened, felt dirty after he’d woken and realized they both left.

Rin makes the decision this time, because he thinks he needs to. He decides that Sousuke will fuck him, first and foremost, and then they’ll take it from there. It’s easier this way, less intrusive and much more comforting, familiar. It feels less like tossing poor Ai into a dark pit and more like opening a door for him, pulling him in from the cold with warm, welcoming arms.

Rin crawls between Ai’s legs as Sousuke stretches him open, his slick fingers pressing into Rin’s hip as he pushes into him. Rin sucks on Ai, soft at first, teasing these delirious little whimpers from him. Sousuke does what he does best, fucks until Rin loses his focus, gets sloppy, mouthing wetly at Ai’s cock. He feels bad, almost, that he can’t do as well as he was, not with Sousuke pulling Rin back onto him by his shoulder, splitting him apart, the sound of slapping skin only barely breaking the intimacy of the room in here. Ai still moans even though Rin isn’t sucking him anymore, his face just resting lax and open against Ai’s bare hip. He’s so loose and stupid from being fucked open that he doesn’t realize at first what Ai’s doing, thinks he’s trying to get away from them, when really he’s wiggling down between Rin’s heavy torso and the mattress. Ai kisses him like this, his hips helplessly twitching up on occasion, smearing the wet tip of his cock against Rin’s stomach. Rin half deliriously wonders if Ai can feel Sousuke when he does that, if both of their cocks are only separated by Rin’s skin somehow, which makes Rin’s stomach feel warm to think about.

Eventually Sousuke hoists Rin upright, holding him with his good arm around his chest. Ai flips over, moves towards Rin on all fours, and then sucks him while Sousuke pushes up, fucking him while they stand on shaky knees. Ai’s mouth is so red and wet already, Rin can’t seem to look at him directly, like staring into the sun. He lets his head drop backwards onto Sousuke's shoulder and succumbs to the overwhelming pleasure of giving himself, fully, to the both of them. Ai hums around his cock, hungry for it, eager to please. Rin has a quiet moment to himself, his eyes closed, imagining Ai on his knees for them both, in those tight little shorts, maybe some of those thigh high socks the girls on the track team wear, his shirt rucked up to his armpits. He thinks he mumbles something about being lucky to Sousuke, but is too out of it to tell, on the brink of spilling down Ai’s throat. He does, quickly, heavily, and it’s the only time Rin has ever come with someone inside him, Sousuke usually too distracted to take care of him until after. It feels even more like Ai is a gift when Rin realizes this, and he sobs happily when Sousuke surges upwards, solidifying the ache in Rin’s spine, filling him with his come.

Rin flops bonelessly down to the side of the bed once Sousuke’s spent cock slips out of him, the world tilting on its axis as he realizes that yes, they’re both still here, yes, Ai swallowed every last drop of his come. Ai snuggles up to him, his torso twisted so he’s on his side, facing him. Ai presses his nose to Rin’s, smiling, his cheeks so pink that Rin thinks, stupidly, he might like them to stay that way forever. Ai holds Rin’s face and kisses him, soft and so eager, and Rin thinks this might have been what they needed, even if they never knew they needed it. Sousuke tugs at Ai’s shoulder, looming over his tiny frame, and then kisses him, moaning quietly into his mouth, tasting Rin on his tongue. It’s a shock, really, Sousuke has never been one for useless affection, but then maybe that’s what Ai can give - a bridge between the gap, the thin string of thread that pulls the button against the fabric, and Rin gasps when Sousuke’s mouth travels mere inches towards Rin's. It’s the first time Sousuke’s kissed him since they were boys, tender and aching for any kind of touch.

Sousuke slides down the length of Ai’s body eventually, grinning when Rin’s hand flops heavily onto Ai’s chest, fingertips stroking over the soft, pink peaks of his nipples. Ai squirms happily, beaming, like a fucking glass trove of nothing but light, and then the soft little  _“ah!”_  he makes when Sousuke swallows his cock down in one fell swoop makes Rin’s stomach flip pleasantly. Ai turns to Rin, just his face this time, his body laid out flat for Sousuke. His kisses lose their direction, like Rin’s had, peppering in wet little smacks across various points on Rin’s face. Rin glances down and catches Sousuke parting Ai’s thighs, pushing them until his knees are bent, one shin resting against Rin’s hip. Sousuke uses the same slick finger he’d opened Rin up with on Ai, not fucking him but just teasing, stroking his hole, pressing enough to breach, but not farther than the first knuckle. Ai stops kissing Rin completely at this point, his jaw loose, his eyes heavy and wet, bleary looking. He's looking at him like Sousuke’s mouth and his fingers are an extension of Rin, and maybe, in a way, they are.

Watching someone come without seeing it happen outside of their face is so, unbelievably intense. Rin starts to get hard again, too fucked out to really manage it, but with enough strength regained to kiss the overwhelmed whimper from Ai’s mouth.

Later, after Rin regains some form of consciousness and manages a shower, he returns to the room all damp and feeling raw, like he’s grown a new layer of skin. He catches Sousuke already snoring deeply, one massive thigh tossed over Ai’s lap while Ai looks down at the dim light of his phone.

Rin slides down to bed, next to him, pillows his head on Ai’s chest and hooks his ankle around Sousuke’s, and very plainly says, “Stay. Please.”

Ai does.

-

At the campus cafe the next day Sousuke finally goes with Rin again. Ai bites his bottom lip when he sees them together, hard, like he’s desperately trying to keep from grinning. Ai draws little cocoa hearts on the foam of Rin’s cappuccino, and he gives them both extra biscotti, even though Sousuke only ordered an iced black tea. Ai draws a heart on the plastic cup, in black sharpie, which Sousuke doesn’t notice until he’s halfway finished with it, the dark of the tea making it almost camouflaged.

Rin settles into the couch,  _their_  couch, with his book, while Sousuke hunches over with his elbows on his knees, focusing on his laptop on the coffee table in front of them. Rin loses track of time, apparently, because he’s startled out of one of the last few chapters of his book by Ai hopping over the back of the couch, wedging himself between them both. He bounces in his seat when he realizes how well he fits between them, with this giddy little grin, and Rin reaches out, wraps and arm around his neck and tugs him close, aching with fondness. He presses his nose into Ai’s hair, and then watches Sousuke, waiting for it, the little black sharpie heart on his cup now in full view, only melting ice behind it.

Rin doesn’t have to wait long. Just to make it obvious he isn’t ignoring Ai, and that he really is trying to study since he lost his scholarship, Sousuke makes a point to blindly reaching for Ai’s hand, pulling it to his mouth to kiss the backs of his knuckles while he doesn’t bother to look away from his screen. Rin nudges Sousuke’s thigh with his toe, smiling into the floral-clean scent of Ai’s hair when Sousuke smirks at his screen when he feels it.

Rin thinks he’s allowed to want this now, without guilt, especially since it seems like it’s already theirs. This couch is big enough for three, or maybe Ai's just small enough.


End file.
